2020-09-02 | 155/04The National Bank of Georgia issued Order № 155/04 to approve the Regulation on Card-based Instrument, which governs relations between issuers, acquirers, merchants, and customers. The regulation establishes comprehensive rules for the issuance, servicing, and security of various card types, including debit, credit, prepaid, and virtual cards, while defining key terms and operational standards. It mandates specific transparency requirements for currency conversion, dispute resolution timeframes, and consumer protection measures to ensure confidence in cashless payments.
1 Notice: The translation of the Rule is not of the same legal force as the enacted document in Georgian. The translation has been prepared by the National Bank of Georgia to assist interested parties and serves as a reference tool. You can find the official document in Georgian at the website of the Legislative Herald of Georgia and at the website of the National Bank of Georgia. Order № 155/04 Of the President of the National Bank of Georgia 02/09/2020 City of Tbilisi On Approval of the Regulation on Card-based Instrument On the basis of Paragraph 1(g) of Article 15 and Paragraph 1 of Article 63 of the Organic Law of Georgia on the National Bank of Georgia, Paragraph 1 and 2(a) of Article 42 of the Law of Georgia on Payment Systems and Payment Services and Paragraph 1(b) of the Law of Georgia on Normative Acts, I order: Article 1 The “Regulation on Card-based Instrument” attached shall be approved. Article 2 This Order shall come into force upon its publication. President of the National Bank Koba Gvenetadze
2 Regulation on Card-based Instrument Chapter I. General provisions Article 1. Purpose and scope
3 based payment transactions to be initiated and allowing the payer to issue payment orders; d) Personalized card – a card on which cardholder’s name and surname or initials are indicated. In addition, cardholder’s name and surname are recorded on the magnetic stripe and/or microchip of the card; e) Non-personalized card - a card that is not a personalized card; f) Debit card – card-based instrument, which allows its holder to dispose available funds on his/her bank account, on the basis of an agreement concluded with the issuing commercial bank; g) Credit card – a card-based instrument, which, allows its holder to perform operations within the credit line granted by the issuer, except for overdraft, on the basis of the terms of agreement concluded with the issuer; h) Prepaid card – a card-based instrument, through which operations are performed within the limit of preliminarily deposited (nominal amount of electronic money) amount (credit limit is not allowed); i) Virtual card – set of card details (at least card number, validity period and security code) without the physical presence of the card through which the cardholder, by relevant authentication measures, can make payments on the basis of an agreement concluded with the issuer only via internet; j) Commercial card – card-based instrument issued for legal person or entrepreneur natural person, which is used only for business expenses and card operations performed through which are reflected in the accounts of a legal person or of an entrepreneur natural person; k) Entrepreneur natural person – a natural person who carries out its activities in accordance with the Article 36 of the Tax Code of Georgia; l) Cardholder – an identified person who uses the card-based instrument; m) Card purchaser: m.a) natural person, who purchases non-personalized prepaid card for personal use or for handing it over to another natural person for use; m.b) legal entity, which purchases non-personalized prepaid card for handing it to a natural person for use; n) Issuer – provider, that issues card-based instrument through which card based operations can be initiated; o) Card account – card-based instrument holder’s current or demand deposit account in the issuing commercial bank on which operations performed by debit cards are reflected, as well as credit card transactions, if the current or demand deposit account balance for these transactions is replenished from the loan account in addition, customer’s electronic wallet (electronic money account) with the provider, on which operations performed through
4 prepaid cards are reflected; p) Credit card account - an account opened in issuer commercial bank or microfinance organization that reflects credit card transactions. q) Spending Limit – a maximum amount of funds set by the issuer, available for card-based operations within the defined period of time; r) Card payment operation (hereinafter - card operation) – Debit or credit operation performed by card-based instrument, including card credentials, in accordance with card scheme rules, through card infrastructure, on the basis of which amount of the operation is recorded on credit/debit card account /card balance is changed accordingly; s) PIN – the cardholder’s personal, confidential code used as one of the cardholder’s authentication element; t) ATM (Automated Teller Machine) – an electronic software–technical self-service device, through which a cardholder can deposit / withdraw cash; u) POS terminal - an electronic software and/or technical device used to: u.a) Withdraw cash from provider’s office; u.b) Make payment at merchant outlets through card-based instrument, that may include cash withdrawal along with the payment for goods/services (except electronic commerce operations); v) Issuer’s 3D security – service based on 3D Secure protocol through which issuer confirms card-based operation initiated by e-commerce terminal only after authentication of cardholder; w) 3D security of the acquirer – service based on 3D secure protocol through which acquirer of electronic commerce terminal addresses issuer for the additional authentication of the cardholder; x) Electronic commerce terminal – virtual POS terminal (software application) registered in the acquirer’s system through which card operations, as well as cancellation and refund operations, are performed through internet in favor of an electronic commerce merchant; y) Electronic commerce merchant – merchant outlet that sells its goods/services through electronic commerce terminal; z) Marketplace – one of the forms of electronic commerce when different merchant outlets sell their goods/services through one website; z 1 ) Organizer of the marketplace - commercial intermediary that manages marketplace; z 2 ) Merchant – legal person or entrepreneur natural person that has an agreement concluded with acquirer or sub-acquirer on acquiring services; z 3 ) Contactless card-based instrument – card-based instrument that transfers information
5 through contactless technology; z 4 ) Card receipt – document issued by an ATM or POS terminal, which verifies payment for goods / services, cash withdrawal by card-based instrument or execution of other card operation; also reflects the relevant information in case of non-successful execution of the mentioned operations; z 5 ) Acquiring – an activity which ensures payment transaction by electronic-technical means through a payment instrument, internet payment transaction with the details of a payment instrument, cash withdrawal operation through a payment instrument and relevant settlement on the basis of an agreement concluded with merchant or other person (marketplace organizer, sub-acquirer); z 6 ) Acquirer – a provider who carries out acquiring services; z 7 ) Sub-acquiring – an activity performed by a provider that includes concluding agreements with merchants and ensuring settlement with them within the framework of the agreement between this provider and the acquirer; z 8 ) Sub-acquirer – provider who carries out sub-acquiring; z 9 ) Offline operation – operation that is confirmed or denied without connecting the issuer; z 10) Online operation – operation, that is confirmed or denied by issuer or by relevant card scheme on behalf of the issuer; z 11) Card scheme – international card schemes (Visa, MasterCard, UnionPay, American Express etc.) and local card schemes which have a single set of rules, technical standards and implementation guidelines based on which the card transaction is processed, it also includes decision-making body or person accountable for the functioning of the scheme. Card scheme does not include technical infrastructure and payment system that ensures execution of card operation; z 12) Local card scheme – card scheme developed by the provider and/or payment system operator acting in Georgia, according to which card-based operations can be performed only at card accepting devices of the licensed/registered providers in Georgia; z 13) Merchant Category Code or MCC - ISO 18245 standard 4-digit code, that define the type of merchant’s activity; z 14) Merchant fee – fee paid by merchant to the acquirer for execution of card-based operations; z 15) Co-branding – the inclusion at least one payment brand and at least one non-payment brand on the same card-based payment instrument; z 16) Payment brand - any material or digital name, term, sign, symbol or combination thereof, which can be used to identify a payment card scheme through which the card-based payment transactions are carried out;
6 z 17) Co-badging – the inclusion of two or more payment brands or payment applications of the same payment brand on the same card-based payment instrument; z 18) Overrunning - a tacitly accepted overdraft whereby a creditor makes available to a consumer funds which exceed the current balance in the consumer's current account or the agreed overdraft facility. 2. Other definitions used in this regulation have the same meanings as defined in the law of Georgia on “Payment System and Payment Services” and other legislative acts of Georgia. Chapter II. Issuing of card-based instrument Article 3. General obligations of the issuer
7 b) Inform card-based instrument holder/card purchaser about the importance of complying with the terms of the use of card-based instrument and provide recommendations about the safe use of this instrument; c) Take all possible measures for protection of card-based instrument and for preventing its illegal use; d) Periodically provide the verification of payment instrument holder contact information and take reasonable steps to update the unverified contact information. 7. Issuer shall have the chargeback procedures. The issuer is obliged to process the card-based instrument holder complaint related to the transaction performed no later than 20 working days after the submission of the complaint. If, due to reasons beyond provider’s control, it is not possible to review complaint and take decision within mentioned timeframe, the issuer is obliged to inform card-based instrument holder about substantiated reason for the delay and the period of the consideration and taking decision. The Timeframe for making a decision on the claim and notifying the card instrument holder should not exceed 55 working days after receiving the complaint. 8. During dispute resolution period of card transaction performed inside the Georgia, issuer is obliged to contact acquirer or other party involved in the operation in order to receive the information about performed operation, unless all details and circumstances of the disputed transaction are known to the issuer. 9. The Issuer is also liable to the card-based instrument holder if: a) As a result of non-compliance with security procedures by the issuer or its outsourcing company, information related to card-based instrument became available to third party; b) As a result of program/technical deficiencies card-based instrument holder incurred actual loss. Article 4. Card-based instrument service agreement conditions
8 equipped with card functionality); d) Rights and obligations of the parties, including the issuer's obligations and responsibilities upon receipt of information from the cardholder on lost/theft of the card instrument / card data, mobile phone, accessory, or on unauthorized transaction (including the obligations of payment service provider stipulated in the Law of Georgia on Payment Systems and Payment Services) e) In case of receiving information about loss or theft of card-based instrument/card data, mobile phone or accessory, or in case of unauthorized operation the actions that shall be taken by card-base instrument holder (including the obligations of payment service user stipulated in the Law of Georgia on Payment Systems and Payment Services); f) The nature/characteristics or possible outcome of all transactions performed by the cardbased instrument established by the card scheme (online, offline, automatically recurring (Recurrent), overspending, etc.) and the liability and responsibility of the card-based instrument holder and provider in the context of these transactions; g) Information on the timeframe of reflecting card-based operation on cardholder account. Also, the terms of the conversion, which include information on the source and date of currency exchange rate used in accordance with Article 6, point 8 of this Regulation; h) Card operation chargeback deadlines and the list of accompanying information to be submitted; i) Chargeback procedures and timeframes; j) In case of exceptional and objective circumstances, obligation to inform the card-based instrument holder about the extension of period of chargeback process; k) Conditions for providing information and/or account statement on the performed operations; l) Terms stipulated by the President of the National Bank of Georgia Order 1/04 of January 6, 2016 “The Rule on Provision of Essential Information to the Payment Service Users During Providing the Payment Service” 2. In case of card-based instrument specified in paragraph 1 of Article 7 of this Regulation, instead of concluding an agreement specified in paragraph 1 the issuer shall provide the instrument user only with the terms and conditions of use of the card-based instrument or indicate a publicly available source where the mentioned information is posted. Article 5. Card details At least, the following information shall be recorded on the card (except the cards issued for at least 10 GEL payments (hereinafter-micro payment) and virtual cards): a) Name (or initial of name) and surname (except for non-personalized card) of the card holder
9 (including additional card); b) Card validity period; c) A name of the card scheme/payment brand or name of issuer or/and their logotypes; d) The place of cardholder’s signature (except for chip cards); e) Issuer’s hotline number. Article 6. Disposal of card accounts
10 a) Is obliged to make the funds deposited on the relevant account available to card-based instrument holder/card purchaser under the conditions specified for the instrument, unless otherwise provided by the legislation of Georgia; b) Is obliged to provide information on card transactions and account balance upon the request of card-based instrument holder, except additional card holder (in case of prepaid card issued to a non-identified/non-verified person - the presenter of this card) 10. The cardholder statement or other records available to the customer about the operations performed with card-based instrument should contain the following basic information: a) Card-based instrument holder account number and / or incomplete card number; b) Currency; c) The balance at the beginning of the extract period; d) The amount of the executed transaction (debit / credit); e) Date, time and place of transaction (in case of ATM - address); f) Merchant name and MCC; g) The balance at the end of the extract period; h) The conversion rate/rates (card scheme rate and / or bank rate) if this transaction was related to conversion/conversions. Article 7. E-money card-based Instrument
11 instrument which allows cash withdrawal or refund money, the total amount of which exceeds 150 GEL or its equivalent in foreign currency. 4. The issuer is entitled to issue such a non-personalized prepaid card which is intended to transfer to the other natural person by the purchaser of the card. This card must meet the requirements of paragraphs 1 and 3 of this article. Article 8. Other obligations of the issuer
12 Chapter III. Acquiring Article 10. Activity of acquirer
13 another commercial bank, then the acquirer must make sure that the commercial bank is informed of the purpose of using this account by the marketplace and also ensure the periodic request of marketplace relevant account balances and verify payment transactions to merchant accounts compliance with its own system records; d) To ensure conclusion of agreement with merchants according to Article 12 of this Regulation directly or through marketplace. 6. The acquirer is authorized to provide acquiring services to a merchant or its branch/representation established under foreign legislation, to marketplace established under foreign legislation or to marketplace that provides service to merchant established under foreign legislation or its branch/representation if it has an adequate mechanisms to meet the requirements stipulated in the Law of Georgia on Facilitation of Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing and legal acts issued by the Financial Monitoring Service of Georgia and the National Bank. A description of above-mentioned mechanisms must be submitted to the National Bank at least 30 calendar days before the start of the service. 7. Sub-acquirer, who plans to introduce sub-acquiring service to merchant established under foreign legislation, is obliged to submit documentation to the National Bank no later than 30 days before starting the service, thus confirming the existence of adequate mechanisms at its disposal to comply with the requirements stipulated by the Law of Georgia on Facilitation of Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing and legal acts issued by the Financial Monitoring Service of Georgia and the National Bank. 8. The Acquirer and sub-acquirer shall make sure that merchant offers/sells goods/services through its own website or through a website of marketplace they serve. In addition, acquirer or/and sub-acquirer shall make sure and monitor that merchant is actually selling those goods/services that are stipulated in the agreement signed with acquirer, sub-acquirer or/and marketplace. However, upon monitoring the merchant transactions acquirer and sub-acquirer shall make sure that actual beneficiary of the funds deposited on merchant account on the basis of the acquiring agreement is the merchant that is in contractual relationship with acquirer/sub-acquirer/marketplace. 9. The acquirer is entitled to provide the acquiring service to the merchant established under Georgian legislation without opening an account. In such case, acquirer must ensure that the funds due to the merchant credited to the current account of this merchant opened in the commercial bank registered in Georgia or to merchant treasury code at State Treasury of the Ministry of Finance. The acquirer shall transfer the mentioned amount no later than the next banking day after receiving respective funds on acquirer’s account, unless the operation of the merchant was considered suspicious. In case of the service described in this paragraph, acquirer is obliged to submit to the National Bank the description of the respective service no later than 30 calendar days before starting the service. 10. Acquirer/sub-acquirer must have effective monitoring systems for the operations performed at its merchant outlets (among them, e-commerce merchants) in order to detect
14 fraudulent operations/devices/software. Acquirer shall ensure constant updates of monitoring system in such a way that it is possible to identify and prevent fraudulent schemes established in international or/and local practice until current period. The acquirer should periodically provide training of staff working with monitoring programs. 11. The acquirer shall have permissions from the relevant card schemes in order to carry out the activity. 12. The Acquirer who stores or transmits card data issued by another provider through its infrastructure is obliged to perform independent and unbiased audit of such infrastructure/information systems once in 2 (two) years. The audit of information system and technologies shall be performed by a widely recognized audit company to ensure compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. 13. The acquirer shall be liable to the issuer, if: a) As a result of the failure of merchant security procedures, card-related data became available to the third party; b) Due to its ATM or POS terminal malfunctions or other software-technical deficiencies, the cardholder has suffered an actual loss from card operation; c) Due to the lack of e-commerce terminal monitoring systems or/and lack of adequate monitoring system, acquirer could not detect and prevent merchant unusual transactions. 14. Acquirer is obliged to provide all necessary information and means to merchant for receiving payments by card-based instruments, train respective staff of merchant, periodically conduct their trainings and train new staff. 15. The acquirer is obliged to process the complaint submitted by the issuer about unauthorized operations. The deadline to review a complaint about the operations performed inside Georgia by card-based instrument issued in Georgia shall not exceed 15 working days. This timeframe may be extended by agreement with the issuer in exceptional and objective circumstances, for a maximum of 25 working days. 16. In case of disputed transaction, the acquirer is obliged to investigate the reason of occurred incident or/and unauthorized operation at its merchant outlet or ATM. It has to bear the burden to prove to the issuer that the incident or/and unauthorized operation that the incident/unauthorized transaction was not caused by the reason of its devices or merchants. 17. E-commerce acquirer shall ensure that payments from the website of e-commerce merchant are made based on strong customer authentication or the use of a one-time code in accordance with the "Strong Customer Authentication Rule" approved by the President of the National Bank of Georgia; 18. Executing offline transaction is forbidden when purchasing goods/services at e-commerce merchant. 19. The acquirer is entitled to offer the customer to perform operations such as receiving
15 information about the account balance, initiating payments, etc. with the ATM in its service. The acquirer is also entitled to offer the customer card-to-card money transfer service (P2P transactions). 20. If acquirer plans to implement cash withdrawal service together with paying for goods/services by POS terminal at merchant outlet, it is obliged to submit the description of the service no later than 30 calendar days before starting the service to the National Bank of Georgia. It is forbidden to perform only cash withdrawal operations from POS terminals located at merchant outlets. Article 11. Information to be provided to the payer and merchant by the acquirer
16 risk management policies; e) Obligations of the merchant regarding the protection of card operation security measures; f) Obligation of the merchant to make visible the operation amount to the payer through the screen of POS terminal or other screen integrated with POS terminal, while in case of ecommerce – through computer, telephone, Pad or screen of another device prior to card operation. g) Procedures to be performed by merchant in the event of suspicious operations, including: g.a) Attempt to execute operation with the card that expired, blocked or does not have standard requisites; g.b) Missing the signature of the cardholder on the card, in case of signature strip on the card; g.c) When executing the operation with magnetic stripe, discrepancy between the signature on the card and the signature on the operation receipt; h) Commission to be paid by the merchant and the principle of its calculation; i) The period of the crediting the amount to the merchant account from the day of executing card operation, which should not be more than the second working days after receiving the relevant amount by the acquirer/sub-acquirer, unless the transaction of the object was considered suspicious by the acquirer/sub-acquirer; j) Grounds for refusal to perform a card operation by merchant; k) Obligations of merchant and acquirer related to improperly executed card operation, refunds and disputes; l) Obligations of acquirer in relation to the merchant in accordance to Articles 10-11, of this Regulation. 2. The acquirer is obliged to periodically check the merchant obligations compliance with the provisions of the agreement. In case, when merchant systematically violates obligations stipulated in the agreement, acquirer is obliged to consider termination of providing service to this outlet. 3. The acquirer shall ensure the access of merchant to the operations executed in its favor, in such a way that it enables merchant to calculate the commission he has to pay and compare/verify information about operations with those operations recorded in its internal system. 4. If acquirer is providing merchant service through marketplace, it is obliged to conclude a bilateral service agreement with merchant directly or trilateral service agreement with marketplace and merchants. In both cases, concluded agreement shall meet the requirements of paragraph 1 of this Article.
17 Article 13. Card receipt
18 d) Website address of e-commerce merchant; e) Amount and currency of operation; f) Confirmation code of card operation; g) Card details (incomplete number of the card or relevant token). Article 14. Authority of National Bank The National Bank is entitled to request additional information and/or documentation from the provider according to article 3 paragraphs 2-3 and article 10 paragraphs 6, 7, 9 and 20 of this regulation and to determine deadline for submitting this information/documentation. Chapter IV. Transitional Provisions Article 15. Transitional provisions
19 measures taken in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 10 of this Regulation, has received reliable information about the activities of the merchant, the requirements on the defining the sphere of merchant activity in the agreement, set in sub-paragraph “a” of paragraph 1 of Article 12 of this Regulation shall not apply to the already concluded agreements. 8 1 . By September 1, 2021, the acquirer is obliged to provide compliance of merchants’ agreement (including merchant agreements signed through marketplaces in accordance with paragraph 4 of Article 12 of this Regulation) already concluded in material form with the requirements set out in the first paragraph of Article 12 of this Regulation. If the acquirer, as a result of the measures taken in accordance with the first paragraph of Article 10 of this Regulation, has received reliable information about the activities of the merchant the requirements on the defining the sphere of merchant activity in the agreement, set in subparagraph “a” of paragraph 1 of Article 12 of this Regulation shall not apply to the already concluded agreements. The acquirer is obliged to inform the merchant by the means at its disposal in advance, by June 1, 2021 about the changes in the agreement. 9. From April 1, 2021, the acquirer is obliged to ensure compliance with the requirements set in Article 12 paragraph 3 of this Regulation. 10. The issuer and the acquirer are obliged to comply with the requirements related to the period of chargeback resolution specified in Article 3 paragraph 7 and Article 10 paragraph 15 of this Regulation from 1 October 2020.